Being "in the moment"

Being in the moment is something that I am working hard on, but to be honest, I haven't been doing a particularly good job at it the last few months or so. I have been finding myself escaping from the present moment more and more...to the point where I sometimes don't hear people when they talk directly to me. My mind goes off in one direction while my body goes another. It's not a good situation.

I am trying to remedy this. This, however, is pretty damned difficult. Today I took the girls shopping at the mall for a while, and then to Walmart. They really weren't in the mood for shopping - I must have said Emma's name 200 times, easily, looking for her because she'd run off, calling for her to catch up, or speaking to her for not listening. Molly was feeling particularly whiny and wanting very much to keep up with her big sister. Add to this the fact that I personally hate mall shopping and really didn't want to be there all that much myself.

I was exhausted after we'd been in the mall for 10 minutes. Emma wasn't listening, Molly was whining, and I found myself wishing I were someplace else. Then I reminded myself of my goal to live more in the moment. I took a deep breath. I made an effort to keep my voice level and my patience intact. I lived in the moments as they came to me.

Let me just say, it was NOT easy. It would have been a whole lot easier to let my kids run amok and mentally transport myself to another space-time continuum. But I stayed with it. And I survived.

I can't exactly say that I felt joyful, but I was there, in that moment, feeling and experiencing all of it as it came, and that's the important part.